This invention relates generally to operation of sensor devices, for example, micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) and discrete component sensor devices, and more specifically, to methods and systems for compensation of data originating from the operation of these sensor devices.
Certain sensor based devices, for example, pendulous mass accelerometers and gyroscopes, incorporate one or more suspended components that are subject to vibropendulous effects during operation. An example of such a component is a proof mass of a MEMS based sensor device. The vibropendulous effects are caused by forces that might placed on the suspended components during accelerations. Specifically, such forces are those that have elements that are perpendicular to a “pendulum axis” of each individual suspended component. The pendulum axis is an axis about which the suspended component is designed to vibrate. Any forces in the other axes may also cause a vibration in that axis, which is referred to as vibropendulous effects, which can result in bias errors in the data generated by the operation of the suspended components.
One known sensor device utilizes an auxiliary sensor to provide compensation for vibropendulous errors using analog signal correction. However, such a solution requires the addition of additional components (i.e., the additional sensor and supporting electronics) to the sensor device incorporating such a solution. Addition of components increases cost and complexity while further increasing a probability of component failure within the sensor device due to the increased number of components therein.